Nearly 400,000 policyholders may move from Citizens

TALLAHASSEE — Nearly 400,000 policyholders in Florida could soon find themselves with a new insurance company.

State regulators last week quietly signed off on a plan to let 10 different insurance companies take over nearly a third of all Citizens Property Insurance Corp. policyholders this November.

Customers are automatically shifted to the new company unless they object.

The state-backed Citizens is the largest residential property insurer with 1.22 million policyholders.

Gov. Rick Scott and other politicians have been pressuring Citizens to scale back its size due to fears a major storm could wipe out its reserves.

One of the companies slated to get 50,000 policies is Heritage Property Insurance and Casualty. The start-up insurer struck a controversial $52 million deal with Citizens earlier in the year to absorb policies.

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